Day 17 Thursday June 4 2009 Assignment

[PillowThrowDecor]

Day 17 Thursday June 4 2009

1). I know you are tired of me talking about this but we still need 4-5 more Bootcamp sellers for our free promotion.  Help me hunt down 5 -6more.   We have….

1 Carvel Country Soapworks
2 beaumonde
2 designsbydebra
4 masters_glass_art
5 studiodusoleil
6 pillowthrowdecor
7 Naturliche
8 zs_knees
9 brilliant_beads
10gallerialinda
11jewelry_without_borders
12mountain dreamers
13 mostly sundays
14Craft Boutique

If you are absolutely stuck here is the quick and easy
Please provide me the following information:
Your Name:  
E-mail Address:    
Link URL:      
Anchor Text:   ( this is the name that will show in the directory)
Tooltip Text:    ( the tool tip is what shows on hover).
Description:
In your description, please include info about your store and info about your discount.
Email El at el@indiesmiles.com with this information:

2) List everything you can as you are now in the free zone.  For the month of June you can add as many listings as you can without any increase of icraftgifts.com fee.  So fill ‘er up!!!

3) Think of one more reason why blogging is good for you and your business and send it to Zz’ Knees.  After that if you have not done so already go to my blog http://pillowthrowdecor.blogspot.com and leave a brilliant comment including a bit about your shop and what you sell. Please sign off with your icraft address as a link.  Please follow me…. This is the beginning of us all following each other to set up reciprocal linkings  Then look for other bloggers within bootcampers and leave a comment on anything you find interesting and follow them.

4.  I really need your help with the following questions and I need you to post your answers in the appropriate threads.

What do you think about another Bootcamp starting July 1… basically same program but a little more refined and streamlined?  Any suggestions for changes?   Do you have any testimonials (that icraft can print) give your personal recommendation and what it has done for you so far 2… Would you take it again?

What do you think about Bootcamp ADVANCED?  Advanced activities would be setting up a blog and actively running it, doing videos and loading them your store or on YouTube. Setting up a web site primarily as a redirect, getting wholesale accounts, press releases, labelling pictures for better SEO, more cross promotion beyond Kaboodle, understanding Google trend reports, business planning, client data management.

What do you think about a Christmas in July Sale for everyone in icraft not just boot campers. Everyone would try and generate 2-6 items that can be “odd socked” price of $5 or 50% off.  Should we start introducing some Christmas items?  Should we run it for the last weekend or should it be a whole week?  Any more ideas?

[kimbuktu]

Maybe I am misunderstanding but I thought you meant we could list items without charge for the month of June.  I have a basic account, and it is saying I have to upgrade to add more than 5 items.

[Brilliant Beads]

Woohoo!!

I left a brilliant (LOL) comment on Christine's blog, and am now following her.

I posted about iCraft and Bootcamp on my blog....I have to learn more html for sure.  I couldn't figure out how to centre the iCraft logo, LOL.

Here's the link if you want to have a read...
http://gillianbeads.blogspot.com/2009/06/icraftca-check-it-out.html

[The Gifted Nest]

I apologize if I can't participate in Indiesmile promotional ad. I think it's a great idea but I can't join. I'm making less than mininum wage as is. If I lower my prices any more than that, I'll be paying my customers to purchase my items. I'm already making less than $5 on some of them. I'll be away for the next couple weeks on a family matter. I'll try to check in every other day or so. I'll definitely have time to rethink my business strategy. Oh well, moving forward.... Bootcamp has been for me the most helpful, genuine, worthwhile learning experience. I would like join the advance course. Thanks ladies !

[Northern Girl Jewelry]

Maybe I am misunderstanding but I thought you meant we could list items without charge for the month of June.  I have a basic account, and it is saying I have to upgrade to add more than 5 items.

You do need to upgrade your account to list more than 5 items, but icraft will not charge you for it as you are a part of bootcamp.  

Icraft sends us our invoices at the beginning of the month for the previous month.  So the current batch of invoices are for May, and then at the beginning of July, we will receive invoices for June.  That invoice should be for $0.00 for bootcampers, if they even do send an invoice.  They may not.

[Northern Girl Jewelry]

Day 17 Thursday June 4 2009

What do you think about a Christmas in July Sale for everyone in icraft not just boot campers. Everyone would try and generate 2-6 items that can be “odd socked” price of $5 or 50% off.  Should we start introducing some Christmas items?  Should we run it for the last weekend or should it be a whole week?  Any more ideas?

Personally, I wouldn't want to participate in a Christmas in July Sale.  I am not prepared to put any of my items at 50% off.  I sell in person as well as on-line and don't need to take that drastic step to sell inventory at the moment.  For me, I don't think that a reduction in price that large will secure future customers.  I'm really not one for sales and I took a very large step in offering a 20% coupon for the IndieSmiles campaign, but it is definitely not something I want to do regularly.  If I do that, I feel that I will simply be training my customers not to buy at full price, but to wait until I reduce things.  And I feel that I will be devaluing my work.  

Another concern I have is that pricing is something that is difficult for many artisans.  Many of us are not pricing our creations high enough to make a profit as it is, and major price reductions will lead to a loss for some people.  Pricing our work high enough to make a profit (not just cover costs of materials and an hourly wage) takes a lot of guts in the first place, so reducing our prices can eat away at our confidence in our pricing strategy.  This is just my perspective.

[Naturliche]

Happy Sunny Toronto day today!
I would definately join another bootcamp, or an advanced bootcamp.
I think once a day is a much much for me, personally just because I also have a full time career, outside of soap =P.

Some things I'd like to learn are listed in your "ADVANCED" programming - I would like to learn how to blog better, use other resources & marketing techniques, making videos, etc.  But I think that the instructions have to be pretty "kindergarten" for myself, at least because I get confused easily with computer/internet stuffs.. lol

I would like to improve on my photography, and maybe get some ideas on bettering my product descriptions aswell.

As for a sale - I am still building my inventory.  
I *might* be able to put some things on an odd-sock type sale.  Sometimes I experiment with new scents/colors or shapes & those could be sold at a lower price.  *thinking, thinking*

I upgraded my account, and I got a bill - so I emailed them to tell them I'm in bootcamp so shall see what happens.

[PillowThrowDecor]

You perspective is really what I want to hear and your comments are valid. Christmas in July is probably a good idea but the pricing part may be a bad idea. .. I don't know... I really need all your feedback.

The objective is to create some large marketing event for icraft that will draw buyers and introduce them to our shops and to our site.

You make a really good point about "training buyers". I am struggling with that too but I don't know how else to attract buyers to start their spending.

Each of our products is very different and this will work for some but not all.

I watch a local merchant in my community that sells higher end luxury items and fine custom articles. His reputation was built on his skill, his ideas and his service. He NEVER had sales except for a once a year sale usually in the summer. The sales were his opportunity to bring new people in the store and although his existing clientelle often did not shop in the sale, it what his chance to introduce his new "custom work" and whet their interest for the Christmas season.  Over the years he has added  "entry price" items to his product line to attract a broader clientelle and get people in the front door.  These items are exactly that... doorcrashers and generally not available the rest of the year. It works for him especially in this economy. Over the years I have watched very closely how he does his business because he has weathered every storm successfully with highend reputation still in tact.

When I am grabbing for ideas I always think of him but I cannot stress enough... some of these ideas work for some but not for others as so much depends on your price, product and geography and of course the buying customer out there.

So bring on the ideas or comments, good or bad, all are welcome!!!

[mountaindreamers]

A sale in July sounds good, get people to think about up coming gifts and plan ahead. the door busters idea is good, my other sites have more items and I try to have some quality pieces that are 10 to 15 , and they have been selling well. thanks Laura

[Naturliche]

Some ideas - alternate to just having a fire sale -

- a special limited edition item that is only available for that specific time period

- a gift with purchase or free gift wrapping

- putting together "sets" (so for jewlery, say a necklace and braclet, earrings combo) - may already exist for some of you

- discount WITH purchase of another item

- cupon offered for future sales (buy something, get 10% off your next order)

- enter into a draw for an item with purchase

- charitable donation for the duration of the sale?  Instead of offering a discount, offer a percentage of your profits to go to a charity of your choosing.  Say you get $50 profit in sales for that period of time, you can say 10% of the profits for the month of July will be donated to ABC charity (children's hospital, cancer research, environmental cause)

More thinking -
Is icraft sponsoring the "christmas in july" or whatever its going to be called?  Maybe there's a way whomever wants to participate can offer an item up for a draw.  Any person who purchases from the participants (I'm not sure if you're intending all icrafters or just bootcampers for this) gets thier name entered into a draw to win those gifts?

I think I'd like to personally see a push for something big to drive traffic to the site will be necessary closer to the holidays.  Say starting in October?

Hmmm... I'm waiting to hear comments from others too.. the above are just spur of the moment ideas......

[PillowThrowDecor]

You made some really good suggestions.

I like the idea of special offerings only available for the sale.  These special offerings may mean special products, or special pricing or shipping... everything doesn't have to be odd sock pricing.

Wow lots of good ideas.

I will put them in the think tank with the responses and additional ideas.

Good stuff.

[StudioduSoleil]

I will admit that this heat is killing me (It hit 34 Celsius at the Abbotsford airport yesterday)! I think I may follow along with a second bootcamp but probably not join in over the summer (or fall with the new little one). With the kids out of school we take occasional impromptu trips and I couldn't commit to posting on the threads every day. The same would hold true for an advanced bootcamp, I'd definitely follow along and do what I could but I don't think I would/could join in the next 6 months. But if I could I would love to follow along and do what I could, I'm taking away a lot from these threads and learning each day!

As for the Christmas in July idea, I take the odd sock idea to be for selling "seconds" so yes I would definitely have items that would qualify! In my listing I would note that they were "second quality". And regular priced items could be reduced by a percentage for the sale. I have a stock of "what was I thinking supplies" that might like to see the light of day!

Naturaliche has some great ideas...I like the gift with purchase and percentage for donation idea posted! I also think that with the economy/job security still on everyone's minds that they may spread out their Christmas shopping a bit this year so a July sale and an October sale as well might be a good way to draw buyers in for the holidays. I suppose each shop could cater the sale to meet their own pricing needs (free shipping, or 10% off, or donations to a charity, etc). Just brainstorming with you all, so this last paragraph may be quite disjointed!

Mary

[GalleriaLinda]

I like the idea of a special item.

If we all made one or two, never to be seen until unveiled, slightly different that our usual fare, that we roll out ONLY for this promotion - that would be fun.

Like an artist-signed one-of-a-kind type thing, break the mold after it is made. That could be a really good marketing theme.

Thinking, pondering....I understand completely the comments about high discounts and pricing issues.

We are all in a learning curve!

[Chicki]

Hi guys!

Just letting you know that I will join the list on those offering a coupon on indiesmiles!

[Fairy Cardmaker]

copied my comments to appropriate threads.